$pread Magazine - Issue 3.3
Ask a Ho: Legal Issues for Dommes
I am a domme in New York, and recently I've been hearing about other dommes getting arrested on prostitution charges. I always thought that domme work was legal as long as you aren't having sex with or jerking off your clients, but now I'm confused. What are the legal parameters I need to stay within so I can keep my business legal?
-Domme, NYC
Dear Domme,
Unfortunately, prostitution laws in New York State are conveniently vague so that basically anyone in the industry can be prosecuted. According to penal law 230.00, prostitution is committed when a person, "engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee." What the hell is "sexual conduct," you might ask? Case law shows that all kinds of conduct have been deemed sexual in nature by the courts, from sexual intercourse, deviant sexual intercourse, masturbation, and even (in People v. Hinzmann, 1998), lap dancing! So dommes walk a very fuzzy line.
A domme who assists her clients with release is clearly engaging in prostitution, but what about someone who specializes in spanking sessions? The butt is often thought of as a sexual area, so spanking a person's butt could be interpreted as sexual conduct. But what if the domme is flogging the client between the shoulder blades? Is that a sexual act? Does it depend on whether or not the domme is naked? Does it depend on whether the client gets his/her rocks off?
There is no clear answer to any of this, and in the end it doesn? even matter because a cop can always say you agreed to jerk him off at the end of the session and then you?e screwed, even if you actually had no intention of jerking him off. If it goes to court, it will come down to the word of a sex worker against the word of a cop.
Juhu Thukral, Director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, says that the definition is complicated, and agrees that a domme could be arrested for acts that may not seem to be explicitly sexual. "However, if a domme is arrested, she should not automatically plead guilty. Police make arrests in cases where they shouldn't, and you and your lawyer should engage in a vigorous defense if you were engaging in acts that don't fit the description of sexual conduct. For example, in domination, the goal of many acts is to humiliate or dominate, so they are not necessarily sexual in nature."br>
As a former NYC domme myself, I can give you a few tips that supposedly make you less susceptible to arrest, but these are kind of "old-whores tales" so take them with a grain of salt:
Don't advertise as a "sensual dominant." That can imply assisted release.
Don't advertise with pictures of yourself wearing a strap-on. (I know it's sexy, but it's definitely not legal to fuck people up the butt for money.)
Do brown shower sessions if you can/want to. Cops are hesitant to risk getting shit on just to make a bust.
Some houses of domination in NYC are routinely busted. Find out where the dommes who've been arrested recently worked and avoid those places!
I wish I could give you clear-cut answers, but this is all we've got. I do send my Bunny Best Wishes out there to all my fellow-dommes in NYC. May we all have many money-slaves!
- The All-Knowin' Mind-Blowin' Ho
Send your questions about sex work to Bunny Nose Best at sexxxybunny279(at)aol(dot)com
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